ART: THE BEST MEDICINE

Step Inside Design, Sep/Oct 2008 by Taute, Michelle

There are nearly 50 artists credited in the back of Magnificent Marvelous Me!, but this book's real stars are the kids who complete the activities in it. These young people have siblings with a serious illness or disability, and the book provides them an important creative outlet. "Their lives will be changed, because they'll have a place to express themselves," says Steffanie Lorig, founder of Art with Heart, the Seattle nonprofit behind the book. "If they don't have a place to express themselves, they swallow it." All the content is based in therapy, but the compelling pro-bono artwork helps make healing fun. A clown by Seymour Chwast, for instance, ups the giggle factor for a page of knock-knock jokes. www.artwithheart.org

MICHELLE TAUTE (www.michelletaute.com) is a former editor at I.D. magazine and has written for HOW, Metropolis, Architectural Record, Dynamic Graphics and others. She is the author of Design Matters: Brochures from Rockport Publishers and also serves as the creative voice of the weekly LiquidTreat (www.liquidtreat.com) e-newsletter.